About Marie Casimir | Djaspora Productions

photo by Day Still

I am a Haitian-American performing artist / producer/ writer / arts leader interested in the straddling of multiple cultures, languages, and memories that exist within the body. My work focuses on supporting the global diaspora of color in creation, connection, growth and development.

Artist

Marie has performed at Links Hall, Constellation, Chicago Home Theater Festival, Music Box Village, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, The New Quorum and more. She has taught movement and embodied text workshops at North Park University (Chicago), Dancing Grounds (Nola) HaitiDansCo Studio (Jacmel, Haiti) , SixTwelve (OKC).

Her practice is rooted in improvised performance using “Theatrical Jazz” as a tool to meld contemporary movement and text through an Afro-Caribbean lens. She claims writer, director Sharon Bridgforth as mentor for her path to Theatrical Jazz. Marie is the Co-Founder of The Instigation Festival, a week of improvised music and dance in Chicago and New Orleans.

Marie is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Clara Luper African And African-American Dept at the University of Oklahoma. She is the founder of Djaspora Productions, connecting and supporting artists of color nationally and internationally as a means to create art that will impact change, encouraging global citizenship in our own communities and abroad. She is the recipient of 2018 Ragdale in Schools Fellowship, a OneLoveNola Artist Residency and a SixTwelve Artist Residency.

Producer

I produce performance, cultural events, multi- disciplinary works and exhibitions.

Djaspora Productions is my new company which bridges and celebrates the diverse human experience using arts and culture as a means to share, create, impact change and inspire others to act as global citizens in our own backyard and abroad. We work With and For creatives of color from all walks of life providing professional resources and building community across geography and interests so that we can thrive TOGETHER. See Our Services HERE

Our latest project is The Instigation Festival, a collaboration with Guitarist / producer Steve Marquette - our goal is to expand upon the ongoing exchange between Chicago and New Orleans creative communities through interdisciplinary performance.